(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographic apparatus having a self-monitoring device and suited for photographing individual persons for filing in albums or for use on visiting cards or certificates.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
It is conventional practice to use a still camera such as an ordinary single-lens reflex camera for this kind of photography. The photographer looks through the viewfinder, determines the composition for an object or person to be photographed and selects a right moment to release the shutter.
There also is a remote control camera for bird watching and other purposes in which a camera's viewfinder image is reproduced on a monitor TV screen. Here again, the photographer monitors the image and selects a right moment to release the shutter.
Furthermore, an automatic photographic apparatus is known which enables the user to take his own photographs for use on an identity card or the like. But with this photographic apparatus the user is unable to monitor the photographic image prior to photograph taking.
Thus, none of the existing cameras or photographic apparatus permit the user, who is the object to be photographed, to ascertain and, if necessary, correct the composition, his garment conditions and his pose by monitoring the image to be photographed. Therefore, good photographs are not always assured.
Particularly where many people are photographed one after another such as for taking photographs of individuals to make an album in commemoration of graduation from school, to print on visiting cards for business use or to use on identity cards, the photographing efficiency is poor because time is consumed in preparing for taking a photograph of each person.
It is conceivable to direct the monitor TV of the conventional remote control camera toward the person to be photographed, to permit him to monitor the photographic image himself. But this would not only require a large and complicated apparatus, but have the problem that the person who is the photographic object tends to cast his eyes away from the camera since the camera and the monitor TV are spaced from each other, which would result in a photograph of the person looking sideways.
Furthermore, since the conventional monitor TV presents a real image with the righthand side appearing on the righthand side and the lefthand side on the lefthand side (as opposed to a mirror image), the photographer cannot monitor his image as though looking in a mirror. This has the disadvantage of making the adjustment of composition and pose difficult.